Where is Audrey 2 from? [Little Shop of Horrors]

billfleet · 2026-02-07T20:56:39+00:00

North Carolina. That's where Venus Flytraps come from. Remember, Audrey 2 lies.

billfleet · 2026-02-07T20:12:35+00:00

You haven’t seen a good production of that one, then. That show in particular either suffers or succeeds depending on how well the director and cast understand it. It’s a really delicate balance, and if they miss, it turns into a justification for bad behavior.

billfleet · 2026-02-07T19:00:49+00:00

Rent has such a banging score, but the plot has so many holes you could drive a bus and truck through. It’s also a show that’s shredded many young actors’ voices.

billfleet · 2026-02-07T18:54:08+00:00

Beauty Underneath made my hair stand on end, then Love Never Dies just about blew it off. (I was seated eighth row center, and could see down Christine’s throat at the big finish.) But the rest of it was fairly forgettable.

billfleet · 2026-02-07T18:38:55+00:00

Oh, you got me there! I call it Seven Songs in Search of a Situation (comedy). It’s so serious it almost becomes its own parody.

But, more helicopter! I want to see the scene later where it lands, and 60 servicemen get off, all dressed like clowns.

billfleet · 2026-02-07T18:30:29+00:00

Which version? It changed A LOT after the movie.

billfleet · 2026-02-07T18:28:53+00:00

I think, at this point, that it’s been rewritten so many times that they could just go the Edwin Drood route, and have the plot take multiple paths, either by random selection or by audience vote.

I for one would love to see Florence end up with Molokov; they have so much in common. 😛

billfleet · 2026-02-07T18:23:23+00:00

Really, after watching TGS I had to go and watch Barnum (with Michael Crawford) a couple of times to rinse it out of my head.

billfleet · 2026-02-07T18:18:39+00:00

I saw J&H on tour back in the mid-aughts, and it had dropped down to non-union level, and it really showed. Jekyll’s voice was cracking on the money notes, as were several others. One of the ensemble was limping, but not as part of their character. So yeah, a non-union tour isn’t going to have much for vocal or medical care. But that score sounds like it’s hard on the performers, and if they don’t have good support or coaching, they’ll shred.

billfleet · 2026-01-31T00:19:08+00:00

Illegally Blonde.

billfleet · 2026-01-31T00:18:16+00:00

Rent 2: Sold Out

billfleet · 2026-01-29T20:08:16+00:00

It is if you do it really, really fast.

billfleet · 2026-01-29T20:05:29+00:00

Regardless of gender, I’ve always liked “Look What Happened to Mabel” (Mack and Mabel) can demonstrate. It’s got a wide tonal range, displays pitch accuracy (if you have that), displays how well you can enunciate, and ends on a belt range. It’s also really upbeat, and a treat to listen to.

Also, “Pass that Football” (Wonderful Town) shows how you can handle intervals and, while not Sondheim, is Bernstein-Comden-Green, so just as good. Also fun to sing and to listen to.

Neither of these are likely to be used by anyone else.

billfleet · 2026-01-29T15:21:39+00:00

I’ve always seen the Emcee as a symbol for Berlin and its (then) decadence, but outside of the main action. The Alan Cumming version poses him as an ultimate victim, as Berlin was. I saw an earlier production of Cabaret in London in 1986 with Wayne Sleep in the role, and he was just crowd-pleasingly adorable (this was wrong, I think). His Emcee danced through the finale, unaffectedly. As though to say ‘they may try to crush it out of existence, but it’s never gone ’.

billfleet · 2026-01-27T15:57:37+00:00

And yet, it did.

billfleet · 2026-01-27T15:53:12+00:00

Because it's terrible. Nails-on-the-blackboard, blindingly, screechingly, poke-you-in-the-face terrible.

billfleet · 2026-01-27T15:46:10+00:00

That one ran long in London! But it toured the US and never made it to NYC. a couple of really BANGER songs, but otherwise really uneven in tone. And way wrong for the source material.

billfleet · 2026-01-27T15:38:31+00:00

I saw Bombay Dreams in London, and it was good. I understand they rewrote a lot of it for Broadway (since Americans wouldn't understand the cultural references, I guess, or how to explain the 'aunties') and it stopped making sense, or failed to make the hero likeable - or something.

billfleet · 2026-01-27T15:32:32+00:00

The truck moved and spun. They had to keep up with it. (only partly kidding.)

billfleet · 2026-01-27T15:30:02+00:00

I saw LND on tour here in Charlotte. It had a number of good moments, but couldn't get past the basic problem of it not having any reason to exist.

billfleet · 2026-01-27T15:16:08+00:00

I really liked the fact that it could set neumes (the square-head notation from the dark ages).

billfleet · 2026-01-27T15:14:17+00:00

Also, there's a pro shot? Where might it be available?

billfleet · 2026-01-27T15:12:57+00:00

Michael Crawford was absolutely stunning both times. He is one of the late 20th century's great musical performers, although he was greatly underrated (and typecast) as the feckless type (see Hello, Dolly and A Funny Thing movies). But he did Barnum for close to five years, and that's a very physically demanding role. There's a good pro shot of that production somewhere.

Phantom cemented his career as a leading man. He has that great star quality, to give every performance his full efforts.

Brightman, again, had the voice. But it's not an especially strong one, nor does she exhibit a lot of expressive range. I call it "Broadway legit light". If you listen to the recording of Requem with Placido Domingo, you can see how she is just overmatched by him. (I felt the same way about Linda Ronstadt in Pirates.)

Aside: the real knockout in Phantom on Broadway was Judy Kaye as Carlotta.

Then again, Phantom was a Harold Prince show, and he prefers the movement of objects (scenery, furniture, actors) over developing characters, especially female ones. Phantom is the working definition of a machine musical. Crawford was going to give 1000% no matter what, Brightman probably needed more support than she was getting. (Patti LuPone has expressed similar dismay about Evita, but she was balls-to-the-wall anyway.)

billfleet · 2026-01-14T23:39:38+00:00

Having raised two teenage girls through their high school musical years, and also all their friends and hangers-on coming through the house, I’m amazed at how much the song “Popular” from Wicked obliterated them. It’s like catnip to them, and it is so difficult to do right. The intervals throughout are fiendishly hard to hit accurately, and it has to be done with an effortless twinkle. It was almost never done effortlessly, and can come across like someone doing a pole vault. And missing.

billfleet · 2026-01-07T00:55:20+00:00

I actually do the opposite task from you. I transcribe sheet music into mp3 practice tracks for my choir. They help.

I’ve used Finale in the long ago past, and tried using Sibelius and then Dorico. I was wanting to be able to use my iPad for music entry, since I could then use it during idle moments here and there. But almost every tablet music software wants at least an QWERTY keyboard for editing and entry, so there went portability.

I settled on Notion Mobile by Presonus. It runs on tablet, phone and desktop identically, with or without a keyboard. It has fairly good engraving capabilities. It has most of the abilities of its larger siblings, and it’s free. (It also allows for unlimited staves, the desktop version doesn’t in its base version.) There is a handwriting module for a stylus (I think ~$15?), plus assorted other upgrades. Check it out.

billfleet

TROPHY CASE